Tensorial tomographic differential phase-contrast microscopy

TL;DR

Tensorial Tomographic Differential Phase-Contrast microscopy (T2DPC) is a novel label-free imaging technique that quantitatively measures phase and anisotropy, enabling detailed 3D reconstructions of optical properties in biological samples.

Contribution

The paper introduces T2DPC, a new method extending differential phase-contrast microscopy to measure the permittivity tensor and anisotropic properties of samples using standard microscopy equipment.

Findings

Accurate volumetric reconstructions of refractive index and birefringence.

Reconstructed polarization structures predict pathology.

Demonstrated effectiveness on various validation samples.

Abstract

We report Tensorial Tomographic Differential Phase-Contrast microscopy (T2DPC), a quantitative label-free tomographic imaging method for simultaneous measurement of phase and anisotropy. T2DPC extends differential phase-contrast microscopy, a quantitative phase imaging technique, to highlight the vectorial nature of light. The method solves for permittivity tensor of anisotropic samples from intensity measurements acquired with a standard microscope equipped with an LED matrix, a circular polarizer, and a polarization-sensitive camera. We demonstrate accurate volumetric reconstructions of refractive index, birefringence, and orientation for various validation samples, and show that the reconstructed polarization structures of a biological specimen are predictive of pathology.